Festivals and Politics

In the last couple of months I have been commissioned to design TWO covers for the Croydon Citizen newspaper. Here are the results.

cover illustrations from The Croydon Citizen

cover illustrations from The Croydon Citizen

Though both inked with real ink and coloured with real, er Photoshop, their subject matters are quite different. May's cover was an amalgam of the annoying problem of fly-tipping in the Croydon borough with the, then, forthcoming general election. Politics is rubbish, indeed.

June's was to celebrate three community festivals taking place that month. Each 'strip' featured a London bus driving down the High Street near the end of Surrey Street. The first: Tech City (hence the modern street scene with sci-fi orange pipes and hovering digital signage). The second: The Summer of Love event in Wandle Park, channeling the spirit of 1967. The third: the Croydon Heritage festival celebrating all of Croydon's past but I was asked to go for the 1950s in order that the Routemaster bus made sense. I've also added some crocus decorations inspired by the new art installation by artists Aether and Hemera, commissioned for the Heritage Festival.

Each 'strip' contains people and buildings, but the eagle-eyed will notice that the clothes of the pedestrians alter slightly depending on what era they are in.

illustrations of pedestrians

illustrations of pedestrians

Also, I've endeavoured to mimic the architecture of Surrey Street in the background by changing the buildings. I wasn't until I did this illustration that I discovered that an old cinema - called The Palladium Cinema - used to stand at the end of Surrey Street, where The Market Tavern is now. Read more about it on Cinema Treasures and see a lovely photo of it in the 1950s on Flickr.

Illustration of the Palladium Cinema, Croydon

Illustration of the Palladium Cinema, Croydon